One of the best ways to avoid wrist trouble, RSI and similar tendon-aching problems — aside from NEVER EVER cradling the phone between your shoulder and your ear! — is to minimize reaching for the mouse. (Office workers spent years at typewriters without getting RSI.) So smart people use keyboard shortcuts when they can.
But several years ago, Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, messed up the world of keyboard shortcutting by inserting a new key between the “Ctrl” and the “Alt” — the dreaded “Windows” key. This key does nothing except pop up the largely useless “Start” menu. On most desktop keyboards, it’s fairly easy to avoid. But on crowded laptop layouts, it can be hard to ignore, and I find my fingers landing on it by accident while I’m typing. Then Windows shifts its “focus” out of the active window, and even if you dismiss the Start menu, you have to click back in the window you were working in to resume whatever you were in the middle of — you can’t just keep typing.
Ugh. So I was thrilled to find this page with a handydandy registry editing script that will disable the Windows key. Highly recommended if you feel as I do. (But remember; you are editing the Windows registry. This script does the work for you, it’s pretty much click and you’re done, but if this sort of thing worries you, be warned.)
[tags]windows key, windows annoyances, lifehacks[/tags]
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